Victor Creed (Joint Venture)
Sabretooth is a mutant, and a long-time nemesis (and sometimes member) of the X-Men, and Wolverine in particular. This is the Joint Venture Universe version of the character. History The Accidental Fratricide Born in the Yukon some time in the 19th century, Victor Creed seemed destined for a life of violence from childhood. Unlike most mutants, his mutation began manifesting at a very young age. His earliest memory is of himself at age nine, arguing with his elder brother Graydon over the last slice of their mother's pie. As Creed tells it, his next memory is of his parents finding him consuming said slice...while sitting in a pool of his brother's blood, still pumping from a severed artery. Exorcism and Extraction Victor's parents were horrified at their now-only son's actions, as well as his change in appearance. His canines had elongated into fangs, and his fingernails had grown sharp points and become more clawlike. While his father Zebediah immediately wanted to shoot the boy for his actions, his mother Victoria tearfully pleaded for his life, not wanting to lose both her children, and Zebediah reluctantly acquiesced. However, this concession was not without its stipulations. Victor was to be chained and collared in the Creeds' storm cellar until the "evil" was exorcised. To that end, he brought in Father Eigar Harnerst, their town's pastor, to perform an exorcism while he used a pair of pliers to remove the boy's fangs, fingernails, and toenails, despite his son's cries and pleas for mercy and forgiveness. However, much like Prometheus, Victor's mutilations never lasted. At dawn the next morning, Zebediah would be shocked and enraged to discover that Victor's fangs and claws had grown back. He promptly began to beat his son as if he had regrown the teeth and nails consciously, rather than them being an early manifestation of his healing factor. This would continue for several more years, with Zebediah telling his neighbors his sons were dead, and that he had the wild animal that had killed them chained up in his cellar. Once a month, when he had raised the money to afford it, Zebediah would bring Father Harnerst back to his homestead to perform another exorcism. However, since Victor's extraordinary features and abilities were the result of mutation, and not any demonic influence, they would continue to be ineffective. Seven years passed like this, with Victor suffering greater and greater mistreatment at the hand of his embittered father, only staying alive by the grace of his grieving mother, fighting constantly not to lose her only remaining child. Eventually, the rising tension would reach a breaking point. Emancipation through Patricide Some time around the start of the American Civil War, refugees from the United States took shelter in the Creed home. Their youngest child found his way into the storm cellar, where he met a then-teenaged Creed. The two spoke briefly, even struck up an odd friendship. Even though Victoria found the boy with her dangerous "demon" son, she was astonished at the manner in which Victor composed himself, the normal, lucid way he talked. When Victor laughed at a joke from the other boy, it was the first time she'd heard him happy since the death of his brother. This single brief moment made her question, for the first time, her and Zebediah's treatment of their only remaining child. Unfortunately, Zebediah walked in behind her just when she was coming to this realization. Seeing his feral son with the refugees' boy sent him into a rage. He bodily threw the American child out of the cellar and went for his axe. This promped another argument between Zebediah and his wife over the fate of thier son, just like all the ines that had erupted previously, with one major exception: This time, Zebediah actually swung the axe at his son. Victoria interposed herself between the weapon and her son and was killed instantly. It is unknown what Zebediah felt as he watched his wife's body fall to the ground, whether he blamed Victor for this as well or whether it might have been a catalyst for him to change his mind about Victor. Seeing his only friend thrown out and his mother killed trying to protect him sent Victor Creed into the second "berserker rage" of his life. His vision went red, he let out a terrifying scream, and when he came to, he was kneeling in a pool of his father's blood, his claws sunk knuckle-deep into Zebediah's throat. Victor left the Creed farm that day and never returned, nor did he see the American refugees or their son again. Creed vowed to himself he would never be hurt again as he'd been hurt all those years. He lived in the wilds for a period, hunting and foraging to survive, and avoiding human contact for the most part. Within a few weeks of the death of the Creeds, Father Eigar Harnerst was discovered slain in his chapel as well, his body looking like it had been mauled by a wild animal. The Quest For Peace Victor's whereabouts for decades after that were unknown. Somehow, he made his way to Dongfeng, in the Henan province of China, in 1928, still appearing no older than his early thirties despite being well into his fifties, at least. There, he found the world-famous Xiaolin Monastery, under attack by the forces of the Chinese warlord Shi Yousan, infamous for his defections and betrayals of many major Asian powers. Creed stepped in and fought off the troops virtually single-handedly, fighting with his trademark animal ferocity. This terrifying display of carnage earned him the name "Yaomo," after a specific type of Chinese demon. The monks of the temple, on the other hand, welcomed Victor warmly and offered him a place with them. Having nowhere else to go, Victor agreed. Studying with the Xiaolin monks, Victor learned virtues his cruel father would never have thought him capable of: the peace of humility, the satisfaction of labor, the joy of aiding others, and the awareness of prayer and meditation. Of course, he also learned the world-famous Shaolin style of kung fu, a study he embraced wholeheartedly, along with his role as Yaomo, ''the demon protector of the Monastery. Although he could not embrace all of the monks' practices - his unique physiology demanded he include meat in his diet, and his hair grew back far quicker than he could shave it off - Victor worked to be the best Xiaolin he could, dedicating himself to their practices and working hard to make peace with his dark, blood-soaked past. In time, he became a ''sifu, ''a master, teaching disciples the ways of the Temple as he himself had been taught. Sabretooth (versus Sabretooth) Nothing lasts forever, regrettably, and Victor's time as the Xiaolin temple's protector was no exception. Around the late 1990s, monks who left the temple gradually stopped coming back, their bodies found around the world, torn apart and mutilated in a manner similar to the way the teenage Creed had killed his abusive father and the Christian priest who had hurt him. Recognizing the hallmark violence of someone like himself, Creed left the monastery himself to seek out the monster killing his fellow monks. Eventually, he came face to face with his enemy...only to find it was himself. Creed came face to face with a twisted, savage version of himself, a monster devoid of conscience or empathy, who lived to kill and thirsted for blood and death. This nameless creature, simply referring to himself as a Marauder, fought and nearly killed Victor, despite the Xiaolin warrior's superior skill and training. Victor was saved only by the timely arrival of two women, Mystique and Destiny, who aided him in fighting off his savage doppelganger. This meeting would prove to be the first of many between the Canadian warrior monk and the mysterious mutant women. In a moment of mirth, Mystique referred to Victor as "Sabretooth", and he decided he liked the name well enough to take it on as an alias during his quest to end the threat of the savage, duplicate Creed. Having discovered the truth behind his brother monks' deaths, the newly-christened Sabretooth was free to return home to the Monastery if he wished. However, he knew that the other Creed was still out there, and still a danger to everyone who crossed his path. Thus, Sabretooth continued his mission, swearing not to go back to the monastery until he had avenged the fallen monks and rid the world of his bloodthirsty double. Several times over the next decade, Creed thought he had vanquished the monster. Unfortunately, even after the most complete and horrific of demises, the savage Sabretooth would always return somehow, plaguing both innocent people and the Xiaolin Creed anew after each death. It was a conundrum, but one Victor was certain he would solve in time. However, events would transpire that would put the search for his doppelganger on hold. Prisoner of the Church of Humanity By the late 2000s, the Xiaolin Creed was still on the trail of his murderous double. One night, a promising lead had turned out to be a trap, and Creed was overpowered and abducted by agents of the Church of Humanity, a radical anti-mutant religious group founded by Reverend William Stryker, a former colonel in the US Army. It was Stryker, of all people, who revealed the truth to Creed. Church scientists had tested him during his internment, and discovered that, rather than being a ''Yaomo, ''a spirit out of Chinese folklore, he was in fact a mutant. This truth shattered Victor, who had thought his powers gifts from heaven that he was meant to use to protect the innocent. Stryker eventually joined this mental anguish with physical, subjecting Creed's body and mind to countless horrific tortures in an attempt to turn him into what Stryker viewed as the ultimate divine retribution: a mutant whose only purpose was to kill other mutants. Creed resisted with all his might, calling upon all the training and discipline he had learned over decades as a Xiaolin, and what Stryker had hoped would be a quick and easy brainwashing turned into a battle of wills that lasted for months. Blink and Clan Darkholme Creed, no stranger to torture, was far more difficult to break than Stryker had anticipated. His healing factor repaired any physical damage practically overnight, and his Xiaolin training and Buddhist faith made most of the psychological methods Stryker would use (which mostly contained heavy Christian allegory and imagery) next to useless. However, it was neither Stryker's machinations nor Creed's willpower that ultimately decided the conflict between them. One day, VIctor was being escorted to his usual round of "therapy" when he discovered the Purifiers (the Church of Humanity's eqivalent to Knights Templar) dragging in a new prisoner: A young girl with neon pink skin and fuchsia hair. Creed came to a decision then and there. He himself could withstand as much punishment as Stryker wanted to dish out, but he would not stand idly by and let the Reverend do the same to another child. Creed gave in to his savage impulses for only the third time in his life, shredding his manacles and his guards to ribbons and cutting a path through the Purifiers to their victim. The girl, named Clarice, came to during the fight, and immediately leapt to her savior's aid, throwing javelins of light that made her assailants simply...disappear, in the blink of an eye. Even with Creed and Blink's abilities and advantages, they were vastly outnumbered by Purifiers, until...as before...the cavalry came in the form of Mystique and Destiny. Destiny, who possessed the gift of precognition, had foreseen both Victor and Blink's imprisonments, and had timed her and Mystique's rescue so that they could save both mutants simultaneously. While Creed thought it Macchiavellian of her to let him suffer for as long as he had, he couldn't deny that given the choice, he'd have stayed behind himself if it meant saving a child from the zealots they fought. Blink, it turned out, could also teleport people through portals in addition to via her javelins, and so she teleported the four of them - her, Sabretooth, Destiny, and Mystique - from the Church of Humanity's internment camp to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Mystque and Destiny owned a manor house. Once they reached the manor, Mystique made her proposition - that the four of them team up to eliminate both the Church of Humanity and Creed's mysterious, savage doppelganger, who had continued his reign of carnage and terror while Victor himself had been at Stryker's mercy. Creed and Blink agreed readily, and thus the four mutants founded the group that would eventually become Clan Darkholme. Powers Sabretooth is a mutant who possesses what is now considered to be the "standard" set of powers belonging to a unique subset of feral mutants, dubbed "The Romulus Strain" by some. He and James Logan are considered the oldest living examples of this type of mutant. 'Healing Factor:' Sabretooth's primary mutant power is an ability, believed to be contained in his genetic code, that enables him to regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with far greater efficacy than an ordinary human. Depending upon the severity of the injury he sustains, recovery can happen anywhere from nearly instantaneously to within the space of a few hours. These healing powers have been commonly referred to as a "healing factor," both by himself and by Wolverine. The full extent and speed of Victor's healing factor isn't known. He has been shown to fully heal from numerous lacerations, neutralize deadly neurotoxins within his veins, and even regenerate missing eyes within a matter of minutes. * 'Mental Healing: 'Creed's healing factor, in addition to recovering from physical wounds, also mends mental scarring as a result of psychological trauma. However, in the process, his healing factor forces his mind to suppress the memories, sometimes resulting in amnesia. Wolverine, who has the same side effect, has often called this his "mental scar tissue". * 'Disease/Poiaon Immunity: 'Sabretooth's healing factor has cured him of many diseases and poisons within hours of contracting or being infected with them. Though he does not drink or smoke, it is suspected that Creed would similarly display Captain America's resistance to inebriation, or Logan's ability to resist the deleterious effects of smoking. * 'Longevity: 'Sabretooth's healing factor greatly slows the effects of the aging process; despite being born sometime before the American Civil War and thus being over 150 years of age, Victor Creed retains the health, appearance, and vitality of a man in his physical prime. * 'Limitless Healing:' Theoretically, since his healing factor is contained within his DNA, and therefore in every cell in his body, Creed could recover completely from having his skin, muscles, and internal organs incinerated from his skeleton within minutes. However, healing of this severity requires an external power source or sustenance factor as well, either to keep Victor alive (if his brain were ever to shut down, he would die, regardless of healing factor) or to hold the pieces of his body together long enough for him to regenerate. 'Natural Weapons: 'Victor Creed possesses a unique physiology as a feral. His fingernails and toenails are actually four-inch-long extendable claws, which can be retracted back into their cuticles when not in use. He also has long, razor-sharp canines in place of cuspids, which give him the moniker of Sabretooth. 'Superhuman Senses:' Sabretooth possesses supernally acute senses that are comparable to those of certain animals. * 'Vision: 'Victor can see in near-total and complete darkness, at far greater distances than a baseline human, with perfect clarity, * 'Hearing: 'Creed's hearing is enhanced in a similar manner to his sight, allowing him to detect sounds ordinary humans couldn't hear at a greater distance, enough to hear a teardrop through thick walls with enough focus. * 'Scent: 'Creed can recognize people and objects by scent, even if they are well-hidden. He is able to track a target by scent, even if his target's scent has been greatly eroded by time or weather. Victor can also use his keen sense of smell to detect lies, due to chemical changes within a person's body affecting their scent. 'Superhuman Strength:' Sabretooth's natural strength is sufficient to break steel chains, support the weight of a dozen men with one arm, and throw a heavy (500+ lb.) man across a room with little effort. Unaugmented, Sabretooth's strength is sufficient to allow him to lift approximately 1.5 tons. 'Superhuman Combat Speed:' Due to years of intensive training and his natural mutation, Sabretooth can attack faster than the eye could follow. Even trained, skilled combatants, like his fellow Xiaolin monks, have been outpaced by his combat speed. He can even rush armed men before they have a chance to pull the triggers of their guns. 'Insulated Weather Adaptation:' Sabretooth's body is highly resistant to certain elemental extremes, particularly cold, to the extent that he is capable of sleeping nude in subarctic conditions with no lasting injury. 'Life-Force Sense: 'Due to his years of meditation and training, Victor has forged a strange, spiritual bond with the natural world around him. This bond with the Earth provides Creed with an almost empathic sense of living things, both plant and animal; he sense and detect the flow of chi, or life-force, within living beings, and can discern distress, sickness, and ill-health in both plant and animal life. He can also sense movement in the medium of air or water. 'Master Martial Artist:' Victor Creed has trained as a Xiaolin monk for over sixty years. Thus, he is a master of nearly all their fighting styles, both armed and unarmed. While he prefers to fight non-lethally, in dire circumstances he will use deadly force. 'Mental Discipline: 'Through constant meditation and focus, as well as the knowledge of dozens of Buddhist mantras, Victor Creed can safeguard his mind against outside influence, control, or persuasion. This makes him uniquely resistant to telepathy, as well as to most forms of psychological warfare or conditioning. 'Multilingual: 'Creed is both fluent and literate in English, Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, and French. Weaknesses * 'Vulnerable Senses:' Sabretooth is vulnerable to any attack that focuses on overloading his senses of sight, hearing, or smell (i.e. sonic attacks, patricularly strong lights, pepper spray, etc.). While he can recover quickly, * 'Drowning/Asphyxiation:' Cutting the supply of oxygen to Victor's brain can kill him. While his healing factor can compensate and keep him alive for longer than a normal human, eventually he will die if his brain dies. * 'Decapitation:' Cutting off the head of a feral will kill them,'' as reported by Sabretooth's fellow feral mutant Wolverine. * ''Amnesia: ''Creed's healing factor repairs psychological damage, just like it does physical. However, in the process, his healing factor can sometimes force his mind to suppress memories related to the damage. Therefore, some truly traumatic experiences can leave him with no memory of who he is or where he is from. His mental focus and discipline makes him resistant to this, but it is still a risk. * ''Berserker Rage: ''Lastly, despite all of his training, meditation, and mental discipline, Sabretooth is not immune to the most common curse among feral mutants: given sufficient provocation, he posesses the potential to fly into a destructive berserker rage that makes him a danger to everyone and everything around him. 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